Here in South Australia, the Astronomy Society of South Australia is also involved in this process, applying to the International Darksky Association for formal accreditation of the Mid-Murray region ( http://www.rivermurraydarkskyr... ), a very sparsely populated region with significant areas of national park. I'd be interested to know know the differences in local legislation/recognition required between the US and South Australia. I'm not involved myself, but from what I've heard the local council here are very supportive.

I've always tried to avoid ads as much as possible, throughout my life as far back as I can remember. If I Google for a Product I even scroll down below the 'ad' for the manufacturer and click on the straight google link lower down. Before the internet, I'd turn off the TV, go do something else etc. when the ads came on and avoid channels with excessive ad breaks (I live in Australia now and simply avoid the commercial channels altogether).

As others have also said, I do my own research for most of what I buy. I'm sure that over the years advertising has had a sublte effect on my brand perception, but I think it is limited and I will put personal experience way above any received info, especially from advertising.

So far as I am concerned the quicker that internet advertising dies the better. I remember back in the early-mid nineties (I guess I had internet access from around '94 through the university I worked at) how much nicer it was when everything wasn't filled with ads and most of the content was just from people with an interest in something. Sort of of like a giant Wikipedia with everyone formatting stuff however they liked and without the hideous tortuous English Wikipedia forces on writers. Ah, nostalgia.

I was an editor for a couple of sub-categories for quite a few years, starting soon after the ODP was set up. In the end I gave up though, as you say, it was massively out of date. It was a nice idea, and remains a nice idea, but is simply impractical these days. When the web was largely static it was useful. Now, not so much, sadly.

Agreed whole-heartedly, though maybe the advent of liquid metal 3D printing will be a new innovation that will change the world? I didn't think much of the plastic layering jobs (I have no need for prototyping, but appreciate they are very useful for others), but printing in metal without the layers? When that is at the pro-sumer level, I think we'll have another revolution on our hands, comparable with the internet or smart-phones.

So maybe the good stuff is still happening, just buried in all the cr@p? Or maybe I'm just another old guy who's out of touch!

I haven't heard of D (I'm not a programmer), but it would be great if the trademark/symbol was little blue flowers, for the love of PKD.

A bit of fun for those involved, but funnily enough plant science has actually investigated this over many decades. Go to a search engine of your choice and look up "waxy cuticle" and "trichomes". Sorry if I appear snide, but this is rather like someone posting an article about how they were amazed at what is inside their desktop PC, with photos and everything, as if no one had looked inside one previously. Neither the word cuticle nor the word trichome appear in that article, which shows they made no attempt to find out anything about their subject. Nice videos though, would be good for teaching!

Interesting that you should mention that as I removed it last week. I haven't cancelled my account, just taken it off my phone. I'll check it weekly or so via my desktop browser I guess. It was annoying me on the phone though. Now I keep getting emails from Facebook telling me I'm "missing" stuff.... I'm over 30 by the way.

Since they were stated out of context to suggest a meaning that wasn't in line with the actual fact stated.

I'd be interested to see how these figures compare to other sciences. I am a mid-career biologist (did eight years as a post-doc and have had a permanent research position for the last seven years). I've always felt that we lose about half of PhD graduates to other areas, partly because they don't want and to partly because there aren't enough jobs, and then about half of post-docs don't continue in science for the same reasons. Doesn't seem that different. I do remember that, when I was a post-doc, an eminent prof (multiple Nature papers) in my field once said to me that he didn't know anyone who was 'really' determined to continue in science who didn't make it as a career. I'd say that is still true. It is a tough career that doesn't pay that well (compared to other professions with equivalent training), but a rewarding one.

I don't want to appear to be joining any anti-US bandwagon or proffering an opinion on any perceived rights and wrongs, but the irony of your post is quite amazing. The origin of much anti-US feeling is that people see the US as interfering in their region, whereas you are complaining that those who have anti-US feeling should do without US involvement in their region...

Just to be clear, for people not alive in the UK in the 80s the name of the band UB40 came from the code on the unemployment benefit form.

Great link! Indeed, if his beliefs weren't enough to discredit him in the first place, having what is basically a PhD in bullsh*t should. Also, what kind of institution provides a PhD in kinesiology? Not a very reputable one I suspect....

Yes, but the airflow is required for it to work. Evaporative fridges have been used for a very very long time, but require energy input in the form of wind. The bottle is inverted in comparison to the evaporative fridge, thus it requires a fan or it would only accumulate a very very small amount of water...